Three Cigarettes in an Ashtray
by youllstartariotbarbarella
Summary: They don't play nice. Klarolijah in the 1950s. AU


**Disclaimer: I own nothing but sorrow and funny hair.**

**For Chris.**

**Prompt: 1950s klarolijah**

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When Klaus arrived at the old pub at 86 Bedford St., it was past 3am - an ungodly hour meant only for the drunks and the broken hearted. Klaus was neither but he knew she would be in there. It had been her favorite speakeasy back in the day. The air used to be hot with the whiskey burning holes in their wallets. The girls danced on floors and tabletops alike with the blood pumping red in their veins. It had been sweetest kind of madness but now the ambiance had drained. All that was left was a sickly shadow of what once was and yet she still visited every night at 3am as if to visit a grave. He couldn't decide whether that was loyal or just plain sentimental.

It took him a little while to find the unmarked entrance. Nearly thirty years after prohibition had ended and the damned bar still refused to mark it's entrances. When he finally found the right door at the end of a nondescript courtyard he entered and spotted her immediately. Even through the thick acrid smell of piss and quiet desperation of that place he could smell her perfume, Chanel no 5. Besides she was impossible to miss sitting at the bar and sucking on a cigarette. With her bright hair done up in curls and her skin glowing pale in the dim lighting, Caroline was a vision in blue. The vultures lurking on the other side of the bar cast wandering eyes her way but she paid them no mind. Klaus made his way across the dingy checkered floor to where she sat in one of the booths.

"You know smoking is a bad habit and terribly unbecoming," he said as he settled in the seat across from her.

"And who told you that?" she replied in stride without even glancing up at him.

"As I recall, it was a young lady by the name of Caroline Forbes who had informed me of that fact."

Out of the corner of his eyes he saw the edges of her mouth cut up her face. Her chest heaved and she took a long drag. The neckline of her dress was modest enough but the hem was generous. She took a sharp breath letting the hot smoke burn her all the way through. Then she leaned towards him.

"She sounds like a real drip," Caroline said cigarette smoke pouring from her red lips as she spoke straight into his face.

Even with his eyes burning, he couldn't help but smile like he meant it. Caroline always had that power over him and he assumed that she always would even when she was trying to annoy him. As she uncrossed her legs then crossed them again, Klaus traced the seam of her peach colored stockings with his eyes. The blue fabric of her dress shimmered in the dull orange light overhead as it fell back from her thighs ever so sweetly. He could almost see the intricate lace pattern at the top of her stockings but Caroline was a creature of grace. With a flick her wrists the hemline of her dress was once again pulled modestly over her knees. She cleared her throat expectantly.

"How have you been, sweetheart?" he said removing his attention from the small tear in her stockings where they had began to run up.

Klaus wondered if she had noticed it.

"You ask like you don't already know."

Caroline was no a fool at least she had not been for a long time now. After decades of knowing Klaus she was sure that he would not have met her without being completely prepared. Klaus liked to have the upper hand when he could manage it and he always played to win.

"Oh I do," he said smiling sweetly at her. "You know I have two other brothers as well if you wanted to fuck them too."

"Get bent, Klaus," Caroline spat but the insult felt half-hearted, worn down like a pair of old shoes.

"Though they're a little bit tied up at the moment," he continued hoping to hit a nerve but Caroline refused to be ruffled.

With her cigarette pinched between her fingers, she put bright ember out with a quick twist. A sharp scratching sound broke through the air as the bartender changed the song. _Still using that old phonograph_, Klaus thought briefly. That was old-fashioned even for him. For a moment the bar was quite. There was only the crack of billiard balls as an old man played alone at one of the pool tables. Then the music started up again but instead of jazz it was a mournful country tune that began to play.

"Still keeping your little monsters in boxes then?" She had placed a new cigarette her lips, the bright red of her lipstick staining the filter.

Klaus scoffed at her question. When did she become so obvious? Surely he had taught her better than that.

"Why do you ask?" Klaus murmured bitterly. "Is _he_ worried I'll sink them in the sea for your little indiscretion?"

She shrugged and sighed growing tired of his games already. Caroline was done with feeling any guilt for loving two men. Life was too long and too lonely to feel any shame for taking what she wanted.

"Just curious," she mumbled while she picked at her prefectly manicured nails, a habit she had never quite shaken. "When are we going to stop swapping death threats and play nice?"

"We never play nice, love. It isn't in our nature."

No, nice was not the word to describe what they had. There were moments of tenderness perhaps, hours spent tracing shapes in the freckles clustered at the small of her back. Like a gypsy would the stars, he had tried to read the future in them but only found more questions than answers. There had been sweet and salty kisses placed in sloppy lines over his heart and down his stomach.

There had been intimacy, passion, and he was not so proud as to deny that there was love as well but there had never been anything nice.

"And what do you know about my nature?" Caroline replied her tone sour.

"I know everything," he hissed leaning in dangerously close so that she could feel his breath cover her face.

His hand gripped her upper arm tightly as he pulled her even closer. She swallowed thickly as he whispered in her ear, "things that he'll never know."

In a flash, Caroline had his arm pinned to the bar. She made sure to break at least two of his fingers as she twisted his hand from her arm. If she had had him at the right angle she would have broken his wrist as well. The bartender glanced between them but decided that stepping in wasn't worth the trouble and went back to shining glasses.

"I wouldn't be so sure," she hissed back.

Klaus smiled. At last she had broken. That was all he really wanted some scrap, some tiny morsel of her attention. He would rather endure her fury than her indifference.

"Then I suppose I am to wait until it's my turn," he said. "Sit patiently until your fancy swings my way?"

"I dunno, Klaus," she replied. "Waiting never seemed to be your style."

He smirked and she put her unfinished cigarette down in the ashtray leaving it to burn. The smoke from it laced in and out of sight as Caroline stood and straightened out her dress. She gathered her things and began to make her exit but not before turning back to say one last thing.

"Call us when you're ready to stop being such a square."

She didn't look back and he didn't follow but Caroline knew he'd find them again in his own time, at least she hoped so. Klaus sat a little while longer as her cigarette turned into a stick of gray ash with Patsy singing the last lines of her song.

_And I sit alone and watch one cigarette burn away_.

As Caroline stepped out onto the empty streets, a cool breeze cut through the humid city air. It rustled the folds in her skirt and felt nice against her legs. She spotted him immediately. He was impossible to miss, in his fine black suit cut to perfection about his corners and edges. He was waiting for her at the end of the street. Caroline didn't rush. There was no need. Elijah would wait an eternity for her as she would for him and they both would wait twice as long for Klaus. Besides running in heels was not an enjoyable task even for a vampire.

"Were you worried?" she asked when she reached him hooking an arm around his waist.

Elijah copied her action wrapping one arm around her middle and rested his palm on her hip.

"Only appropriately so," he replied pulling her into his side.

"Do you think he'll ever come around?"

He didn't answer her question right away. Instead he placed his cool lips to her forehead then another to her brown. She craned her neck to lean her head back and catch his lips.

Elijah hadn't been scared of losing her, not really. With the way her lipstick stained his skin as her kisses murmured over the sharp edge of his jaw, Elijah knew that neither he nor his brother would ever be free of Caroline. Of course Klaus would come back. If Caroline _had_ left him that night then she would have come back in her own time as well. They couldn't stay away from each other. Elijah had come to accept that and Klaus would as well eventually. There would be fire and anguish. There was a good chance that very earth would split in two but the three of them would be together again even if it tore the world apart.

"I'm sure he will, Caroline," he murmured into her kiss. "He can't resist us for long."

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**A/N: All righty so that was kinda...not angsty right? A little hopeful. The bar in the story is based on a real place in New York called Chumley's. It is closed down now but even while it was still ru nning its entrances were unmarked being that it used to be a speakeasy. It's pr e tty cool if you wanna check it out.**

**As always I welcome your opinions on my work...no really. please give me feedbac k. I'm not too proud to beg anymore.**


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